I am signed up to take a Pali course in May. The prerequisite for the course is to have completed one of the beginning Pali grammars (Gair, Warder, etc.)

I am looking for two things here. One, from someone who has learned Pali in a relatively short amount of time, which grammar did you use? Do you have any advice for how to proceed through one of these grammars? Right now I have access to Gair, Warder, and the books "A Pali Grammar for Students," Johannson's book and the book Buddhavacana.

Second, please encourage me!! I have been trying to sit down and start studying for months but have had no end of distractions and obstacles to deal with.

I want to get as much Pali under my belt as possible before May. It's worth noting I took a college year of Sanskrit a few years ago in addition to obtaining a BA in Latin & Greek, though since I neglected to keep up with those languages I remember very little of them. Nonetheless I imagine having experience learning inflected languages will be helpful in teaching myself Pali.

budhano wrote:I am looking for two things here. One, from someone who has learned Pali in a relatively short amount of time, which grammar did you use? Do you have any advice for how to proceed through one of these grammars? Right now I have access to Gair, Warder, and the books "A Pali Grammar for Students," Johannson's book and the book Buddhavacana.

If you already have some elementary knowledge, I would recommend Gair & Karunatillake's course.
Otherwise it might be better to start from Rune Johansson's book.

Second, please encourage me!! I have been trying to sit down and start studying for months but have had no end of distractions and obstacles to deal with.

I want to get as much Pali under my belt as possible before May. It's worth noting I took a college year of Sanskrit a few years ago in addition to obtaining a BA in Latin & Greek, though since I neglected to keep up with those languages I remember very little of them. Nonetheless I imagine having experience learning inflected languages will be helpful in teaching myself Pali.

I would advise you to make the study as interesting as possible. Rote memorization of grammar is troublesome and short-lived.
Gair/Karunatillake and Rune Johansson's courses are much more lively.
Find Pali texts that are really interesting for you. Buddhavacana by Glen Wallis may be useful in this regard.

does anyone have experience studying it in a university or college in asia?

Just keep breathing in and out like this. Don't be interested in anything else. It doesn't matter even if someone is standing on their head with their ass in the air. Don't pay it any attention. Just stay with the in-breath and the out-breath. Concentrate your awareness on the breath. Just keep doing it. http://www.ajahnchah.org/book/Just_Do_It_1_2.php